In Plain Sight: Katie Green's East Village art installation, Bridge, unmasks personal stories from an evolving community

Alexia, from the installation Bridge by Katie Green. Photography by Chelsea Call. / Calgary

 

Creepy.

It’s the buzzword Calgary artist Katie Green has heard the most from people describing Bridge, her bold and colourful public art installation made up of giant portraits of East Village residents hidden behind papier-mâché masks.

These 13 characters adorn 16 surfaces along the RiverWalk in East Village, staring out from bridge abutments, sheds and public washrooms.

“It’s kind of discombobulating when you remove the human face in general,” says Green, in an interview with Postmedia earlier this week along the RiverWalk. “It’s why people have issues with clowns and those type of things. I think that the nature of these masks are alarming. They are powerful. So there’s this greater conversation of visual consent. Does the public get a chance to engage with them whether they want to or not? Some of these masks pull you in without permission. That can also throw people off.”

 

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